Women's basketball roars back for quarterfinal win

ORANGE, Calif. – An early deficit didn't stay around long as the second-seeded Chapman University women's basketball team defeated seventh-seeded La Verne 54-45. Senior Julia Strand had another double-double with 26 points and 10 rebounds.

The Panthers found themselves down by 14 at the midway point of the second quarter after La Verne opened the period on a 15-1 run. An 11-11 tie quickly ballooned to a 26-12 deficit for Chapman. The run was fueled entirely by three-pointers as the Leopard caught fire.

Casey Muramoto hit back-to-back threes to spark the run before Jazzlyn Johnson and Casey Muramoto joined in to make it 23-12. Muramoto hit a third three pointer to push the lead to 14. Strand responded by scoring Chapman's next six points as the threes stopped falling for La Verne and the lead shrunk down to 10.

The Leopards led 28-14 with 5:24 to go in the second but the Chapman defense stepped up as the Panthers slowly crawled back into the game. After allowing 15 points in less than five minutes, the Panthers allowed just 17 points over the next 25 minutes.

Strand led the way with 26 points – 18 of which came in the second and third quarter – but senior Brittany McPherson added 12 with eight rebounds and three assists. Junior Katie Kubo had five assists and scored four of her five points in the fourth quarter to help the Panthers pull away.

After falling behind 28-14, the Panthers finished the first half on a 11-3 run to cut the halftime deficit to just six points. Strand scored the Panthers first eight points in the first four minutes of the third quarter to tie the game at 33-33. Sophomore Zoe Zurasky cut into the lane for a layup to give Chapman the lead back at 36-34 with 3:30 to go in the third.

Chapman outscored La Verne 15-6 in the third to reclaim the lead and continued to apply the defensive pressure in the fourth, outscoring the Leopards 14-8 to advance to the SCIAC Tournament Semifinals on Thursday.

Chapman forced 21 La Verne turnovers and held the Leopards to 27.6 percent shooting. La Verne went 0-for-10 from three-point range in the second half. Chapman shot 35.5 percent on the night and had 12 turnovers.

All the top seeds held in the expanded SCIAC Tournament on Tuesday night with Redlands, Chapman, Pomona-Pitzer and Whittier all claiming victory on their home floor. The Panthers will host the third-seeded Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the Hutton Sports Center.

By Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director

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